Posted on 08/08/2020 6:08:23 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Check out this thread - pics of jalapeno pepper jelly made from red peppers:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3868297/posts?page=15#15
“Cheap Merlot from Walmart (Oak Leaf?)...”
You are my kind of gal, LOL!
Thanks for including the Blackberry Merlot recipe. I have a friend that makes it and that stuff is Da Bomb! :)
I’m ALMOST motivated enough to make that as Christmas Gifts. I’m going for all hand/homemade this year, ALL consumables if possible. No one needs more ‘stuff’ in my immediate family. :)
I’m leaning towards gift baskets with homemade consumables, fancy crackers, some crocheted dishcloths & homemade dish soap, maybe bottles of homemade Bailey’s of Kahlua and our homemade maple syrup, etc. Of course some cheese in there, too. I can make a basic soft cheese or some herb-infused butter.
Note: You can find nice jars on the cheap for packaging things at Dollar Tree.
“...though I think famine will come in the future.”
Plan for the worst and hope for the best. :)
I started making jelly/salsa a couple of years ago to give as Christmas gifts. The ones that tell me they love it and would like more, go on my “list” for future years. I had one person tell me they still had stuff left over from a previous gifting, so now I put out a notice ... do you want it? Sign up (helps me plan my batches, too). It’s too much work to give people canned goods they don’t use. Last year, I also decorated up some nice (square Anchor Hocking) jars of Jalapeno Pepper Jelly & donated them to my church’s Christmas bake sale. The jars were so cute that you could buy one & give it to someone else without having to wrap/decorate it.
THIS year, I think I’ll make homemade vanilla! The stuff is SO expensive to buy ready-made & evidently, if you ever taste homemade, you never go back to store bought! Here are some links on how to do it (I’ll be doing Big Batch!!):
Homemade Vanilla Extract
http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/homemade-vanilla-extract
Homemade Vanilla: The Big Bottle Method
http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/homemade-vanilla-the-big-bottle-method/
If I’m going to do vanilla, I need to get on the ball & get going - it needs steeping time.
Anyway, my dear dad (who loves flowers - his mother had quite the flower gardens outside her kitchen door & around their garden) picked up a bag of wildflower mix at the store. I did not want to plant it, having had poor results from such mixes previously. He begged and begged so I finally planted a raised bed with it. Guess what I got?? GRASS. What a pain in the patootie.
Yesterday, I finally tackled the bed, which also had a couple of "volunteer" zinnias in it from last year - 2 in particular are gorgeous and extra large for zinnias so I kept them & a couple of others I liked. After pulling grass, I had to stake the zinnias up - with shallow roots/loose dirt, they wouldn't stay upright on their own. I also weeded the walkway & hauled more mulch/chips to cover it more deeply, & planted zinnia seeds in the now-clean bed for a fall flower garden. Anyway, here are "before" & "after". I should have taken a 'before' pic before I pulled the first grass ... there's enough left that you can probably tell what a mess it was!
While I was working in the flower bed, the bees kept coming, the Hummingbirds were at the feeder (hanging on one corner of the garden fence), & this hummingbird moth showed up - really interesting.
Old tractors are a fun hobby but can be a bad addiction.
We have nine tractors here.
Five of them are in working condition and are used regularly.
7 of the nine were built prior to 1970.
There used to be more. I’m not sure how many. We got rid of at least a dozen that we decided weren’t going to be worth the effort and expense to fix up compared to the use we’d get out of them afterwards.
I usually make my own Vanilla, but you’re right - time is of the essence for some of these projects!
Relatively good prices on Vanilla Beans at The Spice House:
https://www.thespicehouse.com/search?q=vanilla%20bean
I think I’ll surprise him one of these days with a ‘newer’ used tractor. I have a trusted friend/mechanic who can probably find me a decent one that’s affordable.
And it would keep ME off of the Allis-Chalmers, (which I can BARELY man-handle as it is!) and he could give it to his nephew and I’d never have to see it again! ;)
When granny made jelly, she never used water bath canner or sure jell. Just the juice and sugar cooked till it was the right stage on the spoon.
She put the jelly in the hot sterile jars. Then topped it with melted paraffin. Put a sterile lid on it, and as it cooled the a vacuum seal was made.
She gave me a case of jelly from the last batch she ever made. I only opened 1 jar per year at Christmas. The last jar-12 years later was perfectly good.
Ha. We finally got some ripe tomatoes too. So we have been alternating between Club Sandwich and BLT. Plus a slice or two tomato with almost every meal. Soooooo good!
Can you believe all the rain we are getting this year in JULY???? We got another 1.5 last night. Weeds are growing like wild fire.
I have my beds marked out so that I have 7 areas. I of those areas is fallow/compost each year. The other beds are planted for summer and winter.
So I put completed compost and soil mix in all the beds both spring and fall for the planting seasons. Then the “fallow” bed gets the incomplete compost in the fall and cover treatment in the spring /summmer.
Well, sometimes I don’t plant all the beds, depending on the water situation. We will not use our well to water the gardens. So we depend on rainwater collection for that. Our above ground pool has sprung a leak thanks to a big tree branch during a storm.
We are going to look into getting a commercial cistern for that when we get the root cellar and storage shed completed.
I have clippers and snip off the leaf it’s on and toss it in a bucket of soapy water.
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You are so nice. I also hate to touch them. So I use the clippers to pull them off the branch and then snip them in half over the bucket. Ha.
I remember (as a kid) paraffin wax on top of some jelly in jars! My aunt used to do that - probably learned it from my granny, but I don’t know for sure.
Seems like a good time to share JRandomFreeper’s Salsa Recipe.
Johnny was a regular on the garden threads until his death from cancer. A very entertaining and congenial person. He always grew Roma Tomatoes. He bought pinto beans from the grocery store to plant. He made bread and used his camper stove/oven to cook it. Quite a character-and really missed.
He used to sell his salsa to the fancy restaurants. An engineer who trained to be a chef, and cooked for the troops when he was in the military, IIRC.
JRF’s SALSA
2.5 lbs. of Roma Tomatoes
1 large sweet yellow onion, qtrd.
6 large Jalepenos(adjust for heat)
2 chipoltle peppers in adobo sause
1 can (14.5 oz) rotel original
Salt and Pepper
garlic clove, peeled
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 bunch cilantro
Char the tomatoes, onion qtrs. and Jalapenos on all sides on dry flat grill or comal.
Quarter tomatoes and slice jalpenos, remove seeds for less heat.
Place all ingredients in blender and blend till coarsely chopped.
Adjust seasoning with salt pepper sugar and lime juice for balance and acidity.
Yep. I was too young to remember all the details. But the jelly was wild grape/wild blackberries. A few of the unripe ones was the pectin.
I have some of that medium salsa. My problem is it’s too hot for hubby (I think it’s great). Since I’m low carb, I really need salsa for hubby to eat with his chips. So is there a way to lower the heat on that bag of mix?
Thanks-—that is a prize recipe.
:). You are welcome.
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